We are well into 2012 already and I’ve had to shift gears and make some adjustments art wise. The first batch of show applications went out and came back with nothing to report other than try again next year. I just don’t think still life holds much value to jurors in comparison to other subjects. I’m going to give ‘Made in China‘ one more shot at the IWS National, which I have to submit to today. After that I think I’m going to shelf the idea of entering my still life work into national competitions. In order to counterbalance this I have begun to focus more on commissions that I’ve needed to get started on.

Locally I seem to be getting more traction with my art. I was invited to speak at another artists’ gallery and show some of my work there. The city of Normal has a new large construction going up and they have invited local artists to submit work for the building. I put in three pieces for my submission and hopefully something will come of that.

Speaking of submissions, my son Ed has some art talent and entered a local amateur art show through his high school art class and was juried in. The show opens today with the awards ceremony at the McLean County Art Center. I remember several years ago applying to this show myself. I’m looking forward to going today and it makes me proud to see my son get into his first show. Maybe he will continue with art and get many years of enjoyment from it. I’ll have some photos of this for my next post.

Where the pigment meets the paper has been frustrating me lately. I started this full sheet painting of another still life focused on an Edgar Alan Poe theme of books, glass a skull and a yes a raven.

I drew some inspiration from the 16th and 17th century Vanitas styled European paintings. I’ve ran into some technical challenges and ended up scrubbing and lifting out a book that turned out pretty awful after the first attempt. The problem I’ve had is the golden/yellow light hitting the black spine of the book. There are several swiftly graded value transitions that I just over worked trying to get the look right. The book lettering didn’t turn out well either so I ended up taping it off and sponge scrubbing the paint up. The paper is slightly eroded but workable. I decided to just simplify the book and make it entirely black without lettering. Mentally I’ve checked out of this painting and I decided to pull it off the table and start other work. I sat stagnant staring at it for hours and hours wondering if I should just start over, or not. For now I’m done with it but I do plan on getting back to it at some point. It is perhaps one of the more difficult paintings I’ve attempted. The subject matter of this painting has a wide variety of surfaces, textures, patterns and shapes to deal with collectively and I may have bit off more than I could chew.

Good job, John. Keep working and keep posting. I would like to see some more pictures of your work in progress.
I’m 44 years old and can´t afford classes…watching WIP is the only way I can learn a little.